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Utlendinger Får Ikke Jobb

If you can’t understand the title above, then you are not eligible to work in Norway. No Norsk, no job.

I am myself not a fluent Norwegian language speaker. But, there is a sentence I always keep in mind : Jeg snakker ikke Norsk. Believe me, it works everywhere you go. Back to the title, I read it in Aftenposten (6/7). I got this ISS Buddy to translate it into English which means : No Job for Foreigner.

Language matters. Statistic Norways (www.ssb.no) shows that there are approximately 547.000 immigrants and 108.000 Norwegian-born persons with immigrants parents living in Norway. This amount more or less is equal with the population in Oslo. Imagine that you walk down to Oslo with everyone speaks with their own languages.

Along with language expertise comes myriad of opportunities. At least based on Jhojie (25) experience, a native Indonesian living in Oslo for the last five years. He is now a father of 7-years old daughter and a husband of a Norwegian-born Indonesian. He took Norwegian language course in 2009 –which was free at that time- so he could communicate with the locals and also looked for the job.

After completing his course, he eventually got the job. Not only he can now engage himself in a varied activities but also automatically learn the culture where he lives. As the proverb says, do what Romans do.

I believe that learning language means that you open yourself to learn another culture, another state of minds, even another unspoken social convention you might loath. Jhojie and maybe thousand other immigrants had jumped off the wagon to take this risk. Our time might come, sooner or later.